"I have gone east—I have gone west:
I served in that brave band
Which fought beneath the pyramids,
In Egypt's ancient land.
"I saw the Nile swell o'er its banks
And bury all around;
And when it ebbed, the fertile land
Was like fair garden ground.*[1]
"I saw the golden Ganges, next,
No meadow is so green
As the bright fields of verdant rice
Beside its waters seen.
"There grows the mournful peepul tree,†[2]
Whose boughs are scattered o'er
The door-way of the warrior's house,
When he returns no more.
"I followed where our colours led,
In many a hard-won day;
From ocean to the Pyrenees,
Old England fought her way.
- ↑
*Not a traveller but alludes to the beautiful appearance of the country when the annual overflowing of the Nile, in Egypt, has subsided. Many use the very expression in the text, that it is "like a fair garden."
- ↑
† It is a custom with some of the Hindoo tribes to strew branches of the peepul tree before the door when the chief of the house has fallen in battle.
